Massive Airbnb Scam Targeted Chicago Travelers, Authorities Say

A man believed to have spun a massive web of lies and made millions in the process off of travelers using Airbnb in Chicago and across the country was recently charged with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, according to court documents.

Shray Goel, of California and Wisconsin, received over $8.5 million while running the bate-and-switch operation on short-term rental platforms including Airbnb and others, according to the charging documents, which were posted online by 404 Media's Joseph Cox.

Goel's business spanned nearly 100 properties across the country as of 2019, including rentals in Chicago as well as other large markets such as the Los Angeles area, Denver, Milwaukee, Austin, Dallas, Cleveland and Nashville, plus sites in smaller cities like Davenport, Florida, and Bloomington, Indiana, legal records said.

“Defendant Goel operated a double-booking-bait-and-switch scheme on the rental platforms, secretly double-booking properties and then inventing fake last-minute excuses for cancelling overbooked guests or tricking them into switching to inferior replacements,” court documents said.

From January 2018 until at least November 2019, Goel and his associates ran the operation, according to legal records. They would post multiple listings for a property to maximize what they could make off of it, then give fake last-minute excuses to overbooked guests, canceling renters' reservations or convincing them to move to a different rental by misrepresenting it as comparable or an upgrade, court documents said.

Goel and his associates sometimes falsely listed addresses that had no residential structure, that were not affiliated with their business, or that simply did not exist, legal records said, adding they also used fake names or other people’s identities.

They refused refunds and posted misleading or false reviews, according to the documents, which said Goel would threaten and insult customer service representatives, sometimes resulting in representatives denying refunds to which guests were entitled.

His activity was first reported in 2019 by Vice’s Allie Conti, who detailed her experience of being scammed during a trip to Chicago. She was moved to a flophouse — supposedly after the toilet flooded at her original rental — and told to leave early, according to Conti, who said she was refunded only $399 of the $1,221.10 she spent.

Conti became suspicious and discovered that her host had called her from an untraceable Google number and used a stock photo for their profile picture, she reported. She kept digging, and a trail of evidence eventually led her to Goel, according to Vice.

“Airbnb is built on trust, and bad actors have no place in our community,” the company said in a prepared statement, according to a joint report from Court Watch and 404 Media. “We supported the US Attorney’s Office and the FBI throughout their investigation to help ensure accountability, and we are thankful to them for their work.”

Attempts were made to reach Goel for comment as part of the joint report, the outlets said, but his perspective is represented only in the summary of a cryptic social media message, published Dec. 30 on X from an account in his name that has since been deleted. The message referenced “an incredibly tough day for me” and ended with “stay strong,” according to the report.